Hilariously amazing God!

I’ve shared these before, including most recently, but it’s worth reminding. We have an awesome, amazing, might God! To the point that it can be laughable (in a good way) at what He does and how/through whom He does it.

George Muller: Only through prayer, supported hundreds of orphans, taught children and adults, and helped in other ways. What today would probably a multimillion dollar ministry he ran without sending any fundraising letters-only prayers to God. God even changed the direction of wind for a repair to their heating chimney and sometimes sent food right before they were to begin eating. Wow!

Katie Davis Majors: Helping teach kindergarten in Uganda bloomed into meeting needs of kids, to a small ministry, to adoption, to her own school and many more ways of providing much needed love and help to the poor in Uganda.  A modern Mother Teressa. No one- not herself, her parents, or Ugandan neighbors thought any of this would be possible or developed to such a huge extent. But simple steps of faith, acts of love even in what to us may be physically uncomfortable situations make a difference. She too received unexpected support- money without always asking, a “big”house at about the same rent price of her tiny room before she needed it (God was planning ahead), etc.

These and many others like them are stories of God’s work that are plainly ridiculous from a human point of view. Sometimes even humanly impossible. But that is what our God is- the impossible, joyful God of awesome deeds.

Forget not all His benefits

Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise His holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all His benefits

Psalm 103:1-2, NIV

How easily do we forget! At least I do. It is so easy to get lost and trapped in the troubles of the moment and loose hope. To get frustrated, upset, and despair. To become depressed.

Are trials, uncertainties, and other downs of life pleasant? Of course not! But they are not all there is. In such times as these, it is good to remember all of God’s benefits and His past works, both in your life, in those around you, and in those you’ve read/heard about. Speak truth into your life and see how things change. No, the situation may not get better or the pain decrease, but hope will rekindle and an inner assurance will be restored. For our God is not just a God of the past, nor just a God of the present, but a God of the future as well. Just like He acted mightily in the past, He will do it again!

Read Psalm 77 (NIV). It begins in pain, unanswered questions, and distress, almost despair:

1 I cried out to God for help;
    I cried out to God to hear me

2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
    at night I stretched out untiring hands,
    and I would not be comforted…

7 “Will the Lord reject forever?
    Will he never show his favor again?

A dark place. “I’m in pain. God is not listening. I feel rejected. This stinks!” But the psalmist does not stay down. What can he do? He turns his focus not on the present storm, but on the past:

10 Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:
the years when the Most High stretched out His right hand.
¹¹ I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
¹² I will consider all Your works
and meditate on all Your mighty deeds.”

God is faithful, and the psalmist remembers that. He goes on to reflect on how God miraculously brought Israel out of Egypt. He remembers God’s benefits and his perspective changes.

David does much of the same in Psalm 103 (NIV). He starts listing out all of the great things God has done and is lifted up, remembering the God:

3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion

For:

8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
nor will He harbor His anger forever;
¹⁰ He does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His love for those who fear Him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on His children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him;
¹⁴ for He knows how we are formed,
    He remembers that we are dust….

If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to keep a journal. Doesn’t have to be fancy, just a record of what you went through and how God came through. Then in tough times as these you can look back and see that you’ve been through thick and slim before-and God carried you through.

Talk to others as well. Through my past two small groups, I got to know some of them very well and heard their stories of deliverance. Because of confidentiality, I cannot share those here but I wish I could- God DOES NOT FAIL, even in hard times!

Share your story. That is what the psalmist in Psalm  107 (NIV) does:

2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe…

4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.

⁵ They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
⁶ Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress…

10 Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness,
prisoners suffering in iron chains…

¹³ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
¹⁴ He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,
and broke away their chains.
¹⁵ Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love
and His wonderful deeds for mankind,
¹⁶ for He breaks down gates of bronze
and cuts through bars of iron…

and so on.

I confess, I fail to do this myself and need to. Because when life is dark and dreary, I too need to remember all of God’s benefits!

 

 

The first temptation of Jesus

The tempter [Satan] came to Him [Jesus] and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

Matthew 4:3-4, NIV, words on brackets mine

What’s the big deal with the first temptation?  The answer is that it tested Jesus’ (and tests ours, when we face similar temptation) source of provision- God or something else? That something else can be anything- the Devil, our money/strength/intellect/power/wealth/achievements, government, our job, our kids, etc.

Let’s look at this more closely….

On the surface, there seems nothing wrong with Satan’s statement. “Jesus, you are very hungry, having been without out food for ~40 days now.  Why don’t you go ahead and eat? This is unhealthy; you are killing yourself. You should take care of your body so that it is good for God’s work. There’s no food around here, but that’s OK. You’re God, so just make food out of these stones and eat…”

Is food/eating wrong? No. Should we not take care of our bodies and not work (or starve) ourselves to death? Yes. Does God know we need adequate daily nutrition and other physical needs to function well and serve Him? Yes. So what is the big deal then about a little bit of food to a hungry man?

The answer lies in Jesus’ response: “God is my source of provision, not Me, you, or anything or anyone else. Until God gives me the OK to eat, I won’t. I know that right now, He wants me to finish this fast and temptation cycle. Afterwards, I trust Him to provide.”

There are several items here to unwrap.

First is the issue of God’s will. If you have followed Jesus for any period of time, I’m sure you’ve reached a point in your spiritual walk where there were times when you just knew that something was the right or wrong thing to do or not to do, even if under other situations and even to other godly people present, it is OK and not sinful. Jesus knew He couldn’t eat-not just yet. I’ve been in such similar situations and yes, sometimes I can’t logically explain it to even the godliest of people but I know that at that time and place, this is what God wants.

The second- and more important issue- is Jesus’ direct quote of Deuteronomy 8:3. It is helpful to quote a few verses from Deuteronomy 8 in order to give us the proper context. I strongly recommend that your read the entire chapter, but here, we’ll only focus on a few key verses:

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.  He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.  Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.  Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him.…

….You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

Deuteronomy 8:2-6, 17-18, NIV. Underlines and bolding mine

You see, the issue here is who is #1 in your life and proper acknowledgement, trust, and dependence upon God and not upon ________ (fill the blank for the things that replace God in your life).  Yes, we have a responsibility to work and make a godly living somehow (God usually won’t do it for us), but it’s not about our power to provide, even if like Jesus, you are God and could make a miraculous amount of food (which he later did several times by the way, when God’s will and the timing was right).

I like to use the illustration of a great NBA basketball player. The great ones in NBA history make it look easy. I’m sure they practiced very hard. But is it all about them? How many great NBA players are there who were born or experienced a disability? Or died young. Or were born/raised in a different time, place, or environment that didn’t give them an opportunity to be an all-star NBA player? Only God knows. But that is the point- God provides even the best of the best with the key needs that these people then develop to greatness. If you doubt this, ask God to take your success away from you and see how quickly things go down the drain even if you give it you’re all. Your life and health? You could die today. Your money? They could be stolen, taken or loose value tomorrow. Etc.

God, in His love, uses challenging moments in our lives to not just glorify Him, but to also get our priorities straight and to enable us to live satisfying lives.  In the context of Deuteronomy 8, we are told that God is about to bring the people into a very good land that they did nothing to enable it to be good, just “inherited” it. They would be filled, immensely blessed, and satisfied. Even Jesus was fed and ministered by the angels after the temptation finished.  Thus, we see that God is using hard times not to “punish us” (unless of course we sinned and are experiencing the consequences of our actions that we ourselves chose), but to mature us.

Look again at verse 3: “He [God]…caus[ed] you to hunger and then fed[] you with manna…” God is not mean or cruel- He provided and still provides. But He does use teachable moments. Have you or anyone else you known experienced a situation like this: you work your butt off to provide food for the table, but then one of your kids just plain tosses the good food aside/refuses to eat on a regular basis. You then tell that child that he/she won’t eat the next meal(s) unless he/she works with you for it. Your child may make do at first, but then gets very hungry and does a chore with you or mows a neighbor’s lawn to help pay for the food bill that night. The child then beings to understand that the food (and clothing, shelter, phone, and many other things which he/she always had for free) actually cost the parent a lot of effort to obtain and should be valued? Maybe we can’t do this anymore in this age and time but I’m sure you’ve heard or read similar stories in times past.  We all know that the parent here is not abusive-just teaching the child a lesson about where tonight’s food really comes from. It can be very enlightening.

The same with God. God provides for His own until it is our time to be with Him, then He’ll provide for us eternally and without the pain, hurt, suffering, and other evil and hardship that mars His provision in this sinful world.

To conclude then, we are practically guaranteed to be tempted or otherwise be in a situation where we have to choose: God or _____ as my provider. If you choose ________, you, like I and many others have, will experience a lot of stress, frustration, and pain when that _______ ultimately fails you.  If you chose God, you may go through challenging times to see if you really mean what you believe, but God will always come through. This kind of life can actually be quite exciting though hair-raising as God may only provide at the last minute or show you that “you don’t need this right now.” but it’s a very peaceful, stress-free life full of blessing, joy, inner peace and amazement at all that God does and how He provides. Your choice which one to choose.

The Great Commission of the Old Testament

Actually, there may be more than one (the Watchman passage in Ezekiel being one of them), but for today’s post, it comes from Deuteronomy 5 & 6.

We begin with chapter 5, where God responds to the people’s request to let God speak to Moses and Moses to the people, for the people heard God speak and were frightened to death. Moses was recounting this event that occurred 40yrs earlier to the new generation of Israelites, to remind them of what God had done and to encourage them to follow God in their new land.  Here is part of God’s response (versus 28 & 29, emphasis mine):

The Lord heard you when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, “I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good.  Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!

Do you hear God’s heart? Much of the rest of the Old Testament is filled with God bringing consequences to Israel for their disobedience, but God did not want it that way. He didn’t want to punish and discipline, He wanted to love, reward, and relax. I picture it as a Father with His arms around His children, laughing and having fun all the time with them.

This connection is important for what Moses advises next in chapter 6. Being close to God himself, Moses says  to the Israelites (verses 5-9):

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Moses was encouraging the people to be exactly the kind of people God wished them to be. In my illustration, it would be the kids who with joy, smiles, and laughter excitedly leap into their Father’s arms and play with, spend time with, and enjoy Him. To be the kind of people who are also intimate and close to God, much like how a married couple is intimately close to each other.

Where then, do I get the great commission? In the last verses. Such strong communion and joyful relationship with God that you have that you become transformed inside out, loving God will 110% of all that you are. How can such a love be kept hidden? It can’t! Almost naturally, you start demonstrating and sharing it with others, using both words/teaching, instructive lessons and situations, and demonstrations so that others can come to know the great Father like you do. In this passage, yes, it starts with one’s family. But the presence of God is everywhere-written on your hearts, reminders on your doors and refrigerators, meditations day and night as David would convey in the Psalms.  Don’t tell me such a love and living fragrance is inclusive! It is not- and would, by default, extend to the “nonChristian” people around you. In Israel’s case, maybe those outsiders were few-just visitors/travelers through the land. But in our world today, chances are most of your neighbors do not really know God, so almost everyone you meet could potentially be touched by the life-giving fragrance of God in you.

I close with a reflection from the great apostles, missionaries, and evangelists, such as Billy Graham. In reading his autobiography, I was amazed at just how much God used him and can’t imagine how much darker the world would be without people like him. But there is a caveat. One person, even highly used by God, can’t do it all. Many of the places he preached are dark today. Why? Because it takes more than a preacher or one-time conversation to Christ. It takes me and you choosing to allow God to use us daily in both the mundane and exciting, spiritual and non-spiritual aspects of life. To share Christ. To build others up. To support those new believers whom God has brought through people like Billy Graham and your pastor.

The Christian life primarily is NOT the few hours you spend a few times a week at church or the little bit of praying and Bible reading that you do at home. Those are important. But most of what the Christian life is occurs outside of your church and home, in the areas where you spend most of your time in. Work. School. Neighbors. Grocery stores. You community. Global reach you have through trips and the internet.

Look, Satan and others against Christ DO NOT hold back; they “evangelize” and influence non-stop. They reap what they sow. We have God on our side and if God is for us, as Romans says, who can be against us? But we must go out in faith. This is not to pressure you; but through the Holy Spirit to encourage you to fully live out the inner joy, love, and peace that God is to you. A natural extension of a supernatural life.

Bible/Christianity Basics-How to study the Bible-Part 4: Context

All right- after three posts of important preliminaries, we are finally, finally ready to get into the meat of it! So here we go!

Perhaps no Bible-study tip/guideline is as important as the context, since without it, we can come away completely misunderstanding what God is trying to say through the text. Except for many of the Proverbs where each verse is a stand-alone thought and not necessarily related to the others around it, most of the verses in the Bible go along with the surrounding text and can’t be properly understood without first reading those surrounding passages. In some cases, such as the book of Job, the entire book has to be read in order to really understand what is going on.

The figure below graphically illustrates the context, starting from the verse/passage in question and extending all the way to the entire Bible. Yes, the entire Bible. There are some passages that even with the surrounding context may not be fully clear or somewhat confusing until one looks at most or all of what other passages of Scripture say on the matter. This may seem daunting, but fortunately, the more you read your Bible, study it, and memorize it, the more familiar you’ll become with other parts and begin to remember them and connect the dots to how things fit together.

How does this look like? Let’s practice on a popularly quoted verse that is usually taken and applied out of context: Jeremiah 29: 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Many like this verse because it is encouraging and, from other passages in Scripture, true. Now, God does have many good plans for you, many of them devised even before the world was made ((e.g. Ephesians 1:3-13). He does want us to give us life and life to the fullest (John 10:10) and  we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), and the like. However, this is NOT what this verse is saying in its context!

First, the “you” is not singular but collective. It’s not referring to an individual person but to the exiled nation of Israel.

Second, the context is in a harsh historical context. Israel, God’s chosen people, has just recently been invaded and select survivors forcibly taken and resettled into foreign countries. Furthermore, because of the disobedience of the survivors who were left in Israel, more judgement would still be coming in which the temple and Jerusalem would be completely destroyed and most of those still left in Israel killed one way or the other.  In other words, God was saying to the Israeli captives something like: Israel, I know things are bad and will get worse but I have not forgotten you. I won’t wipe you guys out completely or punish you forever. I have a plan, that plan is very good, and it will bring prosperity and other blessings to you (and others) in the future. Just trust and obey me. I will bring you back to Israel and restore you.

So what could be a modern application of this passage, in its context, to our day and time? It may sound something like:  God may allow severe pain and suffering to happen due to the consequences of sin and it will affect many people. However, no matter how hopefulness, dark, or depressing something gets, God is still gracious and may choose to extend His undeserved favor and make something good come out of great evil and suffering. His plan is to bring about goodness and make things right, even if they don’t look that way right now. 

A few other helpful notes:

• Don’t be limited by chapter and verse markings. These help us quickly find and reference parts of the Bible, but were not there in the original. Many times the chapter and verse cutoffs do work around the flow of thought, but not always. So when looking at the context, pretend the chapter and verse marking are not there. Read before and after the passage as far as you need to understand the context.
• Prayerfully ask God to show you and help you understand the meaning. As I mentioned in the previous post, without God, we can’t really understand it or apply it nor want to.
• Do your best to put away your theology, church teaching, popular opinion/hearsay, and other doctrine and “things you heard from others” or “beliefs you have” when you study the Bible. By this, I don’t mean that church doctrine or other things are bad- many times they are right and very helpful. But sometimes, they are not in line with what the Scripture says or in line with all of the things that the Bible says on a topic. In other words, allow what you read in the Bible to shape/dictate your belief/position/doctrine on things, not the other way around. This is hard, I know, but it’s the only way to get to the truth, which will set you free. It will also help you avoid unpleasant surprises when you realize that something you thought was true wasn’t actually taught in the Scripture.
  • One example of this is the saying that goes something like “God won’t send you to places where His grace won’t protect you.”  That is not true and if you “read it into the Bible,” you’ll soon come to disappointment and shock, both in what you read and what you’ll personally experience. The truth is, God IS always there and CAN protect you (and many times does even if don’t know or realize it); nothing occurs without His permission. But He does send us like sheep among wolves and many of His apostles, not to mention His Son,  Jesus Christ, suffered and died even though they were 100% doing the will of God and God was there and could have protected them.

Now you try:

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:16-17

Spend a few minutes studying the above passage and its context. See what insights you come up with or other things you notice. Feel free to share with others in the comments section. Then open the “read more” section and see what kinds of things I saw. Since this is an example for instruction, I have gone into greater detail then I may normally do since the context can be so powerful and help unpack so many truths!

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Don’t ever assume…and don’t ever assume that God is not working

I think I posted this years ago, but it somehow stayed in “drafts.” If so, it is still a great reminder that God is working, sometimes in the places you don’t expect. Don’t assume and NEVER doubt God!

The Chinese cannot be Christians, right? Atheistic country, persecution, etc.

Yet: I meet a Chinese scholar who invites me to church. He is not a believer, yet both his mother and wife became followers of Christ in China. Wow.

Joys of discipleship- learning from the Chinese community, growing with them, and helping them move closer to Jesus-what a blessing that words cannot describe. God does unexpected and awesome things, sometimes!

God….Is….at…….WORK!!!!!!!

God is…at work

‘“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the LORD. ‘

(Isaiah 55:8)

.

God does some crazy, unexpected things sometimes.

Exciting Things

God is doing some exciting things in my life! Drawing on His grace and strength, I pray that I may be up to par to meet the opportunities/challenges that He brings.

This calls for a popular song from childhood: